At
RensselaerFrom the Archives

CELEBRATING 50
YEARS

Since its construction
50 years ago, the Houston Field House has played a significant role in
the cultural and social life at Rensselaer and beyond.

The mammoth facility,
home of Rensselaer’s popular ice hockey team, was named after Livingston
Houston ’13, Rensselaer’s 11th president. It was a product of Houston’s
passion to strengthen the collegiate and extracurricular sides of student
life.

Once a Rensselaer undergraduate
active in hockey and other athletics, Houston wanted a facility to help
further the educational, cultural, and recreational needs of students
and the local public.

The time to create
such a facility had never been better. With multitudes of World War II
veterans returning to universities for a better education, Rensselaer’s
registration quickly doubled. At the same time, the federal government
was offering to give away war-surplus buildings around the country to
serve as sports and recreational facilities.

Rensselaer applied
for a large Navy warehouse in Rhode Island. The government moved and set
up the steel-frame facility in Troy. The university then poured in more
than a half million dollars in renovations.

The Field House was
officially dedicated in the fall of the 1949-1950 academic year, during
the celebration of Rensselaer’s 125th anniversary. The university—and
the public—now had a facility as expansive as Madison Square Garden, with
seating capacity of up to 8,000.

The sports arena’s
central feature is, of course, its 185-by-85 foot ice hockey rink that
can be transformed into a wooden floor for basketball, concerts, commencements,
inaugurations, and other events.

Over the years, ice
hockey has established itself as the university’s premier sport, with
Field House hockey events drawing thousands of people from the campus
community and the surrounding region. Rensselaer won its first national
hockey championship in 1954, another in 1985, and continues to rank prominently
among the top teams nationally.

Besides sports, the
Field House hosted large-scale industrial council meetings in the 1950s,
expanded commencement exercises, and numerous social events, including
concerts for students and the community.

In October 1950, the
Boston Symphony Orchestra drew a record crowd of 6,000 to the Field House.
Popular musical acts, such as Santana, Bruce Springsteen, and Gordon Lightfoot,
also brought crowds to the arena.

The Houston Field House
experienced a major renovation in 1983. The makeover included a new roof
and the ice rink floor was dropped 2 1/2 feet. A weight room and varsity
locker room also were added.